UMUC BMGT464 all learning activities

All learning activities
Week 1
Learning
Activity 1
You have been recently promoted to
the position of plant manager in a large Mexican operation owned by your
employer, a Fortune 500 company. After taking some time to assess the
situation, you have determined that the implementation of Kaizen continuous
improvement activities would substantially improve the quality and efficiency
of the operation. Pioneered by Toyota and widely adopted around the world by
numerous companies, this technique is based on having employees analyze their
own working situation and area, identify problems, and suggest changes. It has
been shown to be particularly effective and also results in increased employee
satisfaction.
After several attempt to implement
the techniques, you are becoming concerned that it is not being adopted as
readily and enthusiastically as you have seen elsewhere. You begin to suspect
some cultural issues and refer to Geert Hofstede’s web site for guidance:
.com/countries.html”>http://geert-hofstede.com/countries.html
Using this resource and the material
in your text, respond to the following questions:
1. What cultural
issues do you think exist that might impede the implementation in this plant?
2. How would you
address them in order to take advantage of the benefits of Kaizen?
Remember to make one initial post and
to respond to two of your classmates.
(Instructor’s note: This is an actual
scenario taken from the Instructor’s experience with a plant employing some
2,500 people, mostly women, in Mexico.
Learning
Activity 2
You are a manager employed by a
Fortune 500 company that has a reputation for highly ethical conduct and a
highly regarded ethical code. You have recently been transferred to your
company’s operations in Tianjin, China. While attending a meeting with a key
supplier, you are dismayed that the senior representative of the supplier has
brought a gift, an obviously expensive jade statue, to commemorate the signing
of a new contract. You are aware that gift giving is more the norm in China and
that refusing a gift can be highly insulting. Yet, you do not want to violate
your country’s ethical policies. How do you proceed? Do you employ your
company’s home country ethics, local ethical norms, or some combination?
Respond with one initial post and at
least two responses to your colleagues.

Week 2
Learning
Activity #1
This week’s schedule calls for you to access and complete two self
evaluations of your personality type – the Jung Typology and the Big Five
Personality Assessment. Complete these assessments, recording the results for
reference. Then, share the results and comment on how, based on the information
contained in this week’s readings, your personality is likely to impact your
work life and choice of work. Comment on whether you believe you are a good fit
for your current job, whether there are different professions or jobs which you
think you might be better suited for, and how you might consider changing your
situation if it seems called for.
Remember to make your initial post and then respond to at least
two of your colleagues.
Learning Activity #2
You are interviewing a candidate for a position of some
responsibility and access to significant amounts of both merchandise and money.
The applicant happens to be Japanese and is highly qualified with outstanding
references. You notice the individual is reluctant to look you in the eye when
responding to questions. What is your perception of this behavior? Should
you be concerned about hiring this individual for such a sensitive position?
What is the interviewee’s perception of this behavior and how does it differ
from yours? Remember to make your initial posting and to respond to two of your
colleagues.

Week 3
Learning
Activity #1
This week, we are spending much of our time discussing and
learning about motivating people. There is, however, a contrarian viewpoint
that says if you get the right people, they are self motivated. Jim Collins,
author of Good to Great holds this view. Watch the video below:
.jimcollins.com/media_topics/first-who.html#audio%3d96″>The Right
People are Self Motivated (Scroll down to the video with this
title)
Do you agree or disagree with Collins’ viewpoint? Make your case
in the discussion but be sure to use more than just your personal opinion and
experiences. Back up your reasoning my drawing on the theories and concepts in
this week’s readings.
Learning Activity #2
Based on the good work that he did in handling previous
multicultural issues, Frank Jones has promoted to the General Manager of his
company’s Tokyo operations. Performance in this operation has been just barely
acceptable and he would like to find a way to motivate higher levels of
performance. In a previous position in the New York operation, he implemented a
performance improvement motivation plan that included individual bonuses
individual recognition at an annual sales meeting and attendance at the
meeting, held at a post resort, for spouses of the top 10% of the force.
Frank has engaged you as an OB consultant and asked you to review
the plan and recommend modifications that would make it successful in Tokyo.
What do you tell him. Support your recommendations by referring to significant
motivational theories and concepts and to material identifying relevant
cultural dimensions of Japan.

Week 4
Learning Activity #1
Patrick
Lencioni’s book The
Five Dysfunctions of a Teamhas become a classic treatise on
best practices to use in creating and leading teams.
First, watch the short video below:

Next, refer to the PDF found at this link:
.tablegroup.com/imo/media/doc/the_five_dysfunctions.pdf”>The Five Dysfunctions of A Team
Learning Activity #2
Respond to both of the following questions, and respond to
three of your colleagues for each post. Make your initial post by creating a
new topic.
1.Referring
to the video and the PDF summary of the five dysfunctions, pick the dysfunction
that you believe to be the most significant and harmful and explain your
choice. Give an example of where you have seen this dysfunction in action in a
team in which you have participated or which you have observed.
2.Select
a team that you have been a member or leader of or have interacted with and
determine whether this “team” was a real team as described in the
material in the text or was actually a group that did not meet the tests of
being a team. Describe the factors that where present that led you to your conclusion.

Week 5
Learning Activity #1
Ethical leadership is a subject that scholars have debated for
years. Is all leadership, by definition, ethical or is it possible to have
unethical leadership?
Download the article from the link below
.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2007/griffith.pdf”>http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/2007/griffith.pdf
In it, I argue that ethical leadership is made up of two
components, an ethical leadership process and and ethical leadership objective.
Study the article and then respond to the following:
Pick a famous leader whom you believe is or was either ethical or
unethical. Argue your case in the discussion post using the criteria set forth
in the article above. Make sure you discuss both the leadership process
employed and the ethicality of the leader’s objectives.
Learning Activity #2
This week’s material covers the perils of groupthink,
overcommitment and avoidance of failure, and the concept of a premortem, an
analysis of potential failure scenarios before embarking upon a project or
activity. The following podcast touches on all of these topics and attempts to
make the case that failing early is good and avoiding failure at all cost is
unhealthy. In addition, it applies market based economics to the prediction of
failure in a novel way.

Premortems are becoming increasingly popular and, in fact,
a formal method for conducting them and prioritizing risks has been developed.
Failure Mode Effects Analysis was originally designed to allow engineers to
predict failures in complex systems and to prioritize the risks to allow them
to be reduced in an orderly and cost effective manner. It has now been widely
applied to other situations where a premortem makes sense, such as in the
management of complex projects. Read the short tutorial at the following link:
.moresteam.com/toolbox/fmea.cfm”>https://www.moresteam.com/toolbox/fmea.cfm

Then, identify a significant project or process where you are
employed and use the technique to conduct an FMEA. Use an Excel spreadsheet to
show the various failure modes, severities, and probability of detection and
their associated ranking numbers. Sort them into descending order of RPN, and
then propose actions that can be taken to remove or control each risk.

Week 6
Learning Activity #1
As the
text notes, the ability for an organization to change in order to meet changing
business environments and threats is key to its success. Click on the Resources
section of the classroom (at the top) then go to the library. In the search
function, enter the term Resource Rigidity. Read the first article that appears
in the search results Unbundling the Structure of Inertia: Resource vs. Routine
Rigidityby Clark Gilbert. The article theorizes that these
types of inertia are responsible for much of the inability of organizations to
change and uses the newspaper industry as an example.
Select another company which you believe has been unable to
effectively change to meet changing market requirements or threats. Apply the
concepts of the article to diagnose the inertia of the company, explaining how
you believe the resource and routine rigidity impacted the organization and how
you, as a leader would have overcome these issues.
Remember to respond to two of your colleagues’ posts.
Learning Activity #2
There are a variety of instruments that can be used to assess
and diagnose organizational culture. One of these uses what is called the
competing values framework.
Proceed to the website:
.ocai-online.com/products/ocai-one”>http://www.ocai-online.com/products/ocai-one
and follow the directions for registering and taking the
individual Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. (Note: use your
personal email when registering and do not attempt to register and take the
assessment from a work computer or from behind a computer protected by a
firewall, it may result in issues. If you have trouble with the site, create
another free email address such as a gmail address, and register from that
site.
After you have completed the assessment, post your results,
including the diagram by cutting and pasting it into the discussion area or
including it as an attachment. Using the results, describe your organization’s
culture with special emphasis on the discrepancy between your preferred style
and the existing cultural style. Comment on how you believe the culture aids or
hinders the organization’s efforts with special attention to the ability to
change and innovate.
Remember to respond to two of your colleagues’ posts.

Week 7
Learning Activity #1
Stress is a pervasive and often destructive part of our working
lives as we deal with deadlines, balance our work and personal lives, and deal
with the today’s economic pressures. We often wonder if the level of stress in
our lives has increased or if we are just more aware of it. Professor Mark
Williams of Oxford University has studied this phenomenon and has some answers
for us.
Go to .bemindfulonline.com/”>http://www.bemindfulonline.com and view the video
in the upper right corner to hear Professor Williams’ thoughts. Then, go
to .co.uk/mbsr/test/”>http://bemindful.co.uk/mbsr/test/ for
the stress test.
After taking the test, create an original post to share your
stress level. In addition, drawing on the material in the text, identify the
top three stressors in your life and suggest several courses of action you can
take to reduce the level of stress affecting you. Remember to respond to at
least two of your colleagues.
Learning Activity #2
We are approaching the end of the course and your final project
is due in Week 8. so we are going to go a bit easy on this week’s learning
activities. In order to help you get started on your project, make an initial
posting identifying which of the organizations you intend to analyze. In
addition, include a brief proposed outline and a list of what you think are the
critical issues facing the organization from an OB perspective. You will be
doing additional research during the next two weeks, so you will not be held to
these items, but they should give you a headstart on the paper. Remember to
respond constructively to two of your peers, offering suggestions as to how
they might improve their analysis or offering additional items to
consider.

Week 8
We are wrapping up this week and I would like to have you spend
most of your time on the final project. Accordingly, we have only one activity
this week.
The organizational issues surrounding the Secret Service have
been widely reported and debated in the news and a new Acting Director has been
appointed. He is a former agent with eperience on the Presiential detail. He
has a very big challenge ahead of him, so let’s help him out.
After reading about what has been going on at the VA, put
yourself in the shoes of an OB consultant brought in to help the new Director.
Identify the top three OB issues that you believe must be immediately
addressed to improve the performance of the VA. Then, identify the actions you
would recommend to the Secretary in order to address these issues. Be sure you
draw on the concepts and theories form the course in formulating your response.